Roof eave mounted rain gutters with attached downspouts are installed at the eave fascia just below the over-hanging shingles on most sloped roof buildings. Gutters are generally an open box shape with a flat or rounded bottom and are made of sheet metal, plastic or wood. The roof runoff water collects in the slightly sloped gutters toward and into regularly spaced vertical downspouts connected to the bottom of the gutter whereupon the water is directed on the ground level away from the base of the structure. Gutters are installed on buildings to protect and preserve the siding, windows, and foundation of the structure from rain water damage. Water collecting at the foundation area is particularly damaging and may cause settling or shifting of the structural support of the building. Rain, in prolonged contact with exterior siding, masonry and windows often causes cracks, mildew and wood rot or decay. Gutters are most commonly fastened by long nails driven through the top edge of the gutter into the fascia or by straps that are clipped to the front of the gutter and then fastened by screws into the fascia board. The nails or straps are typically spaced at three to six foot intervals along the gutter. Problems arise with proper operation of gutters when vegetation, twigs, bark, branches, or other debris enters the gutter trough and slows or prevents the movement of water to the downspouts. The clogged gutters will then overflow onto the siding, windows and foundation causing water damage to the structure and rendering the gutters useless. The problem of how to keep gutters clean and properly operating becomes a major concern. Commercial gutter cleaning services rapidly become very expensive because gutters often fill with debris several times a month, usually in Autumn and Summer and when trees shed and when winds from storms tend to generate debris.
At present, homeowners who clean gutters themselves most commonly use a ladder to remove debris by hand. This process requires repetitiously repositioning the ladder to clean several feet of the gutter at a time. This is a dangerous task as falling from a ladder may result in serious injury or death. Even more dangerous is gutter cleaning performed by standing on the edge of the roof and leaning over the gutter to remove the debris.
In an attempt to combat the aforementioned problems, prior art have arranged screens or screening material on the open top of the trough to prevent debris from entering the gutter. This solution is often ineffective when pine needles or leaves quickly clog the screen openings. Others have attempted to overcome the problem by designing specially made gutters that include caps or hoods. A narrow slot is provided along the outer edge to allow entry of water into the gutter. Drawbacks associated with these specially made gutters are that they cost much more than conventional gutters, are substantially heavier, and tend to overflow under severe rain conditions.
Other prior art inventions have attempted remote or ground level gutter debris removal with little practical success because of many shortfalls and deficiencies in the gutter cleaning devices. Some of the defects and deficiencies of the prior art include: excessive complexity of the device, high manufacture costs, inappropriate structural components, operational design flaws, non-ergonomic operation, inefficient operation and a general inability of the user to adapt the device to actual conditions encountered.
Some gutter cleaning devices have used extension pipes and hoses to remove debris with air or water pressure. Devices of this type are extremely impractical, in that they have limited reach due to their weight and often spread the gutter debris and water over the user, the siding and the roof. Moreover, they are incapable of removing heavy debris and may injure the user from debris propelled from the gutter by the air or water pressure.
Some prior art devices comprise hand operated scoops, rakes or brushes that require use of a ladder with the associated dangers previously mentioned. The cleaning process with these devices is extremely slow and inefficient because the ladder must be repeatedly repositioned.
Prior art devices having mechanisms with grabbers that operate perpendicular to the longitudinal gutter axis do not work because of the very narrow space, (often as little as 2 inches) between the shingle overhang and the front of the gutter. In this respect, prior art devices fail to allow for adjustment of the grasper width and motion to accommodate varying gutter openings of varying widths. Moreover, the bottom edges of some devices cannot reach or do not maintain flush contact with the bottom of the gutter resulting in inefficient debris pick-up. Thus, the debris left over the entire length of the gutter may be swept together to create another clog during a successive rain event.
Flat blade graspers seen in some prior art are limited in the amount of debris that can be held and are therefore inefficient to use. Grasper systems that have mechanisms, wires or cords arranged within the grasper closure area are subject to wear and to becoming so fouled or tangled in the debris as to render the system inoperable. These types of devices may require frequent cleaning during operation. Thus, they must be systematically returned to ground level and cleaned.
Other prior art grasper or paddle devices fail to solve the problem of easily pushing gutter debris under the gutter support straps, nails or other gutter fasteners without having to awkwardly tip the pole to effect a proper angle under the gutter fastener.
With regard to extendible poles, prior art devices that require specially made poles with actuator levers or adapters become impractical due to their high weight, high cost and limited reach. In the same manner, some gutter cleaning devices are rendered impractical because of the complexity requiring expensive machine fit components and the inability of the user to effect simple, low cost repairs with common household tools. Moreover, the embodiment of many prior art devices requires construction made of conductive metal or a predominantly metal combination which has danger of electrical contact with proximate electrically energized conductors. Still other heavy devices would cause rapid user fatigue because of the cantilever effect that magnifies the weight.
Prior art devices that do not provide for a proper stand-off from the gutter would position the user too close beneath the gutter for safety or ergonomic operation. Insufficient stand-off may also allow these devices to be chaffed by the front face of the gutter during use.